Method for loading, storing and presenting web pages

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for loading, storing and presenting web pages, by which means the required band widths and the time taken to load web pages for an application are reduced. To this end, components or information elements separate from web pages are provided with indicators by which means the expiry dates can be deduced. The indicators are evaluated by the application which may be a browser. In this way, the application can reload only the updated data/components from the original source. Information elements which are constant over a long period of time can be completed or loaded by the application from a memory associated with the same. The loading times and data quantities for a data transmission from an original source to an application can thus be considerably reduced. The invention also relates to an information system which uses said method, preferably in a motor vehicle.

[0001] The invention relates to a method for loading, storing and presenting a unit of information, especially an Internet web page, in accordance with the preamble to claim 1.

[0002] The Internet has become an important tool for getting information quickly and for using services, with the transmission rates for fixed network connections becoming increasingly faster, as is the case for a great majority of users since the widespread introduction of DSL data transmission technology, for example.

[0003] But the mobile segment will also use the range of information and services increasingly in future, with new transmission techniques such as GPRS, UMTS, CDMA and HSCSD ensuring that mobile applications and subscribers can be provided with the necessary bandwidth. However, as the number of users in the mobile radio segment increases, the loading time for web pages from the Internet will increase and in some cases reach its limits, even with a high bandwidth availability in a mobile radio cell. In addition, there will continue to be network segments that only provide limited bandwidth, such as in GSM networks, so that loading of content from the Internet takes a long time.

[0004] Many web pages that are accessed by a user are web pages that are visited frequently or regularly. These web pages generally contain graphics, updated information, and the like. Many data items that are loaded during repeated access are identical to web pages that have already been loaded previously, yet all of the data items of a web page are loaded anew every time a web page, even the same web page, is accessed.

[0005] A number of optimization possibilities are used currently to shorten loading times of web pages or content from the Internet, for example the use of frames, wherein one web page can be embedded within another, or the use of the conventional cache memory of a browser. The use of frames makes it possible to reduce the screen area to be loaded anew, with the result that the quantity of data to be loaded in this frame does not require reloading of the entire screen contents. Cache memory makes it possible to temporarily store complete web pages, even web pages in frames, during use. When the same web page is accessed again, it can be loaded from the cache memory, and thus requires no Internet access, no data transfer and also does not burden bandwidth. So that it is still possible to update web pages once they have been stored in the cache memory, an expiration time can be specified for a complete web page. If repeated access is performed to a web page that is stored in the cache and whose expiration time has elapsed, the browser automatically loads the complete web page from the Internet again. Another possibility for updating the web page is the use of the usual page update function of a browser, which triggers new loading of the web page regardless of the expiration time.

[0006] Moreover, EP-A-0 813 159 describes a method wherein each individual component or information element of a web page is assigned a priority that is composed of a natural or whole number. Using the priority of the individual information elements, the browser loading the web page creates a priority list and loads the high priority information elements first. As a result, the user receives important information sooner than less important information, such as the banner information. Information elements with no priority are treated as priority “0”. However, the time for assembling the web page as a whole is not reduced in this method.

[0007] In mobile applications, it is necessary to use the above-mentioned optimization possibilities because of the narrow bandwidth for two reasons. Firstly, doing so reduces the necessary bandwidth, resulting in faster loading of the web page, and secondly, it is more economical for the user to load less data since he most likely will have to pay for the amounts of data actually loaded with future transmission methods.

[0008] Consequently, the object of the invention is to create a method and an apparatus for loading, storing and presenting content, in particular web pages, from a computer network that makes information or data available, in particular the Internet, which optimizes the loading of the data from the network.

[0009] This object is attained with a method for loading, storing and presenting accessible information from a computer network such as a LAN or WAN in accordance with claim 1, and a device in accordance with claim 13. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the object of the subclaims.

[0010] In the method according to the invention for loading, storing and presenting accessible information from a computer network on the part of a subscriber who is connected to the computer network at least some of the time, a loadable information unit consisting of one or more information elements is loaded, stored and displayed by the subscriber, wherein

[0011] a marker from which derives a time measure for the validity of the content of the information element in question is assigned to each information element or to the information elements that change over the course of time,

[0012] a loadable information unit with the marked information elements is loaded from the computer network by the subscriber,

[0013] the markers of the information elements are evaluated by the subscriber,

[0014] the information elements whose validity has expired are reloaded from the computer network and stored as a function of the evaluation of the markers, and

[0015] the loadable information unit is assembled from the information elements stored at the subscriber and those loaded anew from the computer network, and displayed.

[0016] The markers on the individual information elements of an information unit, from which the validity period or expiration time of the information element in question can be derived, result in a significantly reduced need for access to the computer network, preferably over the Internet, thus reducing waiting times. The markers preferably involve direct specification of the validity period or expiration time. The markers can also involve a priority level for the expiration time or validity period, where the priority is used to establish an expiration time. An information element of a loadable information unit is defined in particular as a separate graphic, a separate text, a separate applet, or a separate formatting instruction. A loadable information unit preferably takes the form of a web page and the subscriber preferably takes the form of an application, for example a browser. Specifically, in the case of a web page, the information elements are the elements of which the page is composed.

[0017] The application preferably has an evaluation unit for evaluating the markers wherein the result of the evaluation for each information element of the loadable information unit determines the point in time when a new loading of the relevant information element must take place. In this regard, a marker of an information element can in particular take the form of a metatag or attribute.

[0018] Preferably the information elements of the loadable information unit are stored individually with their markers in a memory, wherein the cache memory of the browser is used in particular. This achieves the result that an information element to be loaded anew can be written in place of the preceding information element, thus simplifying the assembly of the information unit, in particular the web page.

[0019] Connection to the computer network can be accomplished over a fixed network or a mobile radio network.

[0020] The information system in accordance with the invention for carrying out the method described above has an antenna and is connected at least some of the time to the Internet by a mobile radio network. The browser is preferably contained in the information system. Moreover, the information system can have a CAN interface for connection to a display screen.

[0021] In particular, an information system of this nature is used in a motor vehicle, wherein the motor vehicle has a CAN-capable T. V. device to which the information system is connected.

[0022] A preferred embodiment of the invention is explained below with reference to the drawings.

[0023]FIG. 1 serves to explain the graphic symbols used for the individual information elements,

[0024]FIG. 2 shows the first time a web page is loaded in the application, and

[0025]FIG. 3 shows reloading of individual information elements from the web page.

[0026] The graphic elements 1.1 to 1.6 shown in FIG. 1 symbolically represent various separate components or information elements of a web page. Information elements 1.1 and 1.2 are meant to be items of information, i.e. data, that are subject to short modification cycles and thus have a correspondingly short expiration time (for example, 2 seconds). The information elements 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 are meant to be components of a web page that can be found unchanged on the page for a relatively long time and have a correspondingly long expiration time (for example, 10 days).

[0027]FIG. 2 shows the first time a web page 1, consisting of the information elements 1.1-1.6 as described in FIG. 1, is loaded. An application 2, for example a browser, uses a loading process 4 to load the components of the web page 1, and displays them. In addition, the individual components or information elements 1.1-1.6 and their expiration times are stored, separately, in a memory 3 allocated to the application 2, by a storage process 5. In this starting situation, it is not possible to save loading time for assembling the web page 1 in the application 2.

[0028]FIG. 3 shows the process of an update of the web page 1 loaded in FIG. 1. The application 2 loads the web page 1 again at a later time, for example 5 hours after the first loading. In this new access, however, only the components 1.1 and 1.2 are loaded by the loading process 4, since their expiration times have been exceeded. The expiration times for all other components have not yet been exceeded, and the application 2 can thus assume that the information elements are still current. Here too, as in FIG. 2, the newly loaded/current information elements 1.1 and 1.2 are again written to the memory 3 by a storage process 5, where the corresponding previous information elements are overwritten. So that the application 2 can display the complete web page, the remaining components 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6, whose expiration time has not yet been reached, are additionally loaded from the memory 3 allocated to the application by a loading process 6. If the web page is accessed again after the expiration time of one of the information elements 1.3-1.6 with a long validity period has elapsed, then it too will be loaded anew.

[0029] Some examples should make the logic of this method clear. A company logo on a web page can be a graphic with a data size of 10 Kbytes, for example. Since it seldom changes, a very long expiration time (for example, 100 days) can be specified for it. At the same time, the web page can contain extremely topical, variable text content with an expiration time of 10 seconds, for example. The important thing to the user is the topical information, but at the same time he does not want to do without the attractively designed web portions. Using the prior art method, if both content items are located on the same web page, the user must always load the 10 Kbytes of the company logo anew, even though this content has not changed at all. Therefore, depending on the bandwidth, he wastes time for longer loading and money for unnecessarily transmitted amounts of data.

[0030] As already mentioned above, the separate components of a web page with individual expiration times consist, for example, of repeating graphics, texts, applets or page formatting information. This method has especially beneficial effects when identical graphics occur repeatedly on different web pages. For example, this could be a weather map with political map graphics and graphics for sun, clouds, rain clouds, etc. on a web page. In accordance with the present invention, updating of a weather map would then mean that only the positioning data for placement of the graphic symbols on the political map would need to be transmitted as long as all the graphics had already been loaded once and were provided with an adequately long expiration time. The amount of data to be loaded would be reduced to a fraction of what existing solutions require. The display of weather maps for various countries would require only that the political map be loaded once, and the positional data for the weather symbols repeatedly.

[0031] An interesting application of the method according to the invention is the more or less central preparation of web page components for an extremely wide variety of applications in the network (web), with a separate web address (URL) for each of these web page components. These URLs could then be used on a wide variety of web pages instead of separate symbols or graphics. As a result, the loading and storage mechanism for the underlying invention would extend over broad portions of the net and over a variety of web pages. The result would be enormous potential savings of bandwidth and loading time in the mobile network as well as for fixed network applications.

List of Reference Numbers

[0032]1 Web page

[0033]1.1 Information element

[0034]1.2 Information element

[0035]1.3 Information element

[0036]1.4 Information element

[0037]1.5 Information element

[0038]1.6 Information element

[0039]2 Application, especially browser

[0040]3 Memory

[0041]4 Loading process

[0042]5 Storage process

[0043]6 Loading process 

1. Method for loading, storing and presenting accessible information from a computer network by a subscriber who is connected to the computer network at least some of the time, wherein a loadable information unit (1) consists of one or more information elements (1.1, 1.2,1.3,1.4,1.5, 1.6) and is loaded, stored and displayed by the subscriber, characterized in that a marker from which derives a time measure for the validity of the content of the information element (1.1, 1.2,1.3,1.4, 1.5, 1.6) in question is assigned to each information element or to the information elements (1.1, 1.2,1.3,1.4, 1.5, 1.6) that change over the course of time, a loadable information unit (1) is loaded from the computer network by the subscriber, the markers of the information elements (1.1, 1.2, 1.3,1.4, 1.5, 1.6) of the loadable information unit (1) are evaluated by the subscriber, the components of the loadable information unit (1.1, 1.2, 1.3,1.4,1.5, 1.6) whose validity has expired are loaded anew from the computer network and stored as a function of the evaluation of the markers, and the loadable information unit (1) is assembled from the information elements stored at the subscriber and those loaded anew from the computer network, and displayed.
 2. Method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the marker is an expiration time or validity period.
 3. Method in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the marker is a priority level for the expiration time or validity period.
 4. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the loadable information unit (1) is a web page.
 5. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the computer network takes the form of the Internet.
 6. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the subscriber takes the form of an application (2), for example a browser.
 7. Method in accordance with claim 6, characterized in that the application contains an evaluation unit for evaluating the markers wherein the result of the evaluation for each information element (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6) of the loadable information unit (1) determines the point in time when a new loading of the relevant information element (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6) must take place.
 8. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the information elements (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6) of a loadable information unit (1) are a separate graphic, a separate text, a separate applet and/or a separate formatting instruction.
 9. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a marker of an information element (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6) takes the form of a metatag or attribute.
 10. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the information elements (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6) are stored individually with their markers in a memory (3).
 11. Method in accordance with claim 10, characterized in that the browser's cache memory is used.
 12. Method in accordance with one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the connection to the computer network is accomplished over a fixed network or a mobile radio network.
 13. Information system for carrying out the method from one of the preceding claims, wherein the information system has an antenna and is connected to the Internet by a mobile radio network at least some of the time.
 14. Information system in accordance with claim 13, characterized in that the information system has a browser.
 15. Information system in accordance with one of claims 13 or 14, characterized in that the information system has a CAN interface for connection to a display screen.
 16. Motor vehicle with an information system in accordance with claim 15, wherein the motor vehicle has a CAN-capable TV device to which the information system is connected. 